Gabourey Sidibe, Precious Dominate NAACP Image Awards

At the 41st Annual NAACP Image Awards Friday night, 26-year-old Gabourey Sidibe took home the award for best lead actress for her role in the movie Precious. The movie swept the awards, with actress Mo’Nique taking home the award for best supporting actress. On the television side of things, Hill Harper (also co-host of the Image Awards) won the prize for lead actor for his role in CSI: New York, with Jada Pinkett Smith taking home her first Image Award for her leading role on the medical drama Hawthorne. The series Lincoln Heights won for best drama series, finally breaking the four-year winning streak of hit show Grey’s Anatomy.

Sidibe, who is also nominated for an Oscar, has spent much of the latest awards season enduring upsetting comments about her weight. Though Vanity Fair magazine included her in the Young Hollywood issue in March, she was not featured on the cover, which portrayed actresses who were all white and thin.

The Brooklyn native has become adept at taking such snubs in stride, walking the red carpet at the Vanity Fair “Character Approved” Award party held in New York City last Thursday as a last-minute surprise guest. Though she wasn’t expected at that party, she had dropped by to say hello to her friend Maggie Gyllenhaal and ended up confidently walking the red carpet gauntlet, ensuring that regardless of ridiculous Hollywood standards of beauty, she is well known for what actually counts to most moviegoers: talent.